CAD Tech News (#142)
21 Jan, 2021 By: Cadalyst StaffHerrera on Hardware: Ryzen 5000 and Zen 3 — Benchmarking Performance Measures for CAD
This exercise provides some performance data for comparison, plus insights about examining a CPU’s clock rates.
By Alex Herrera
After a long journey back to a leadership position in high-performance CPUs, AMD now presents the biggest threat to Intel’s workstation dominance in years. As covered in last month’s column, the dual introductions of the Zen 3 microarchitecture and Ryzen 5000 line represent the linchpin in AMD’s closing of the gap with the longtime market leader. The combination finally delivered on that one last metric that Intel had been using to hold off the resurgent challenger: single-thread (1T) performance.
CPUs are anything but one-size-fits-all in terms of technology, applications, and marketing. Zen-derived CPUs have caught and — at least for now — surpassed Intel in core count (and core count per dollar), making them particularly attractive in applications that rely most heavily on multithread-capable workloads. CAD is certainly one of those application spaces, but it also happens to be one that still often demands the best single-thread (1T) performance available to boot. And unlike delivering on higher core counts, achieving parity with Intel on that latter metric has proven elusive to AMD. But with the launch of four Ryzen 5000 CPUs — codenamed Vermeer, and the first to leverage the third-generation Zen 3 microarchitecture — matching or even surpassing Intel on 1T performance was finally within reach.
This month, I’ll follow up on Zen 3’s 1T promise with some benchmarking of workloads common in CAD processing.
Ryzen 5000 Testing: How Does Zen 3 Perform for CAD-Relevant Workloads?
AMD describes Zen 3 as the “most comprehensive design overhaul of the Zen era,” touting a blanket 19% higher instructions per cycle (IPC) over Zen 2. And with single-thread performance tending to track IPC (supporting memory and I/O allowing), Vermeer offered the most promise ever to meet or exceed the best Intel can manage in 1T rates. It’s a promise I hoped to test, with a range of CAD-centric benchmarks focused on single-thread workloads. And thanks to Boxx Technologies, I was able to do just that.
The name Boxx has been mentioned in this column several times in the past, and for good reason. When it comes to exploring emerging, cutting-edge workstation components and design approaches, Boxx is consistently at the forefront. The company knows it can’t compete with the likes of Dell, HP, and Lenovo on the basis of price, so there’s no point in building machines with the same specs as that trio’s wares. Instead, Boxx is always on the lookout to differentiate with unique features and no-compromise performance, and adopting AMD CPUs has been one way it’s done so, particularly in the age of Zen.
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